One idea sparks another idea, which sparks another idea....

One of the elements I find really rewarding about working with lots of different groups of children and adults in different contexts is that the ideas and inspiration that develops with one group feeds into another and I often find themes emerging at certain times.

As part of my role in the foundation unit of a large school I was involved in a carving project, looking to find things that we could carve in order to explore shaping in three dimensions and come up with a body of work to inspire a wood sculptor.

We made sculptures out of clay but this didn't really give the sensation of carving. But by pressing the clay into a tray we could carve into the clay with pencils to make designs, then using Plaster of Paris make a permanent mould of the carving. 

I was also working with an afterschool club doing regular sessions in the outdoors. One of the most popular things was the mud kitchen, one of the girls was really enjoying pressing into the mud with leaves to make patterns. This is where one idea, feeds another idea....

When we were carving dragons one of the boys had used a pine cone to press into the clay to make scales. When the moulded shapes were completed this made a wonderful texture so I took casting powder to the after school club to see if they wanted to experiment with this too. I did all the handling of the casting powder with both groups as it can be a skin irritant and there is an exothermic reaction takes place when the mixture is going off, so precautions do need to be taken. This didn't mean that the children weren't involved in the process and fascinated by all the different states; powder, liquid, solid in 20 minutes is a very satisfying transformation. 

The children were really fascinated to see the transformations in their artworks too. Any elements that were sticking into the clay became reversed, which when using the plants made it more like the original plant.

A few children wanted to write their names or initials into the plaster and this was more challenging as you have to write everything backwards in order for it to come out the right way in the finished piece. This took a bit of practice but the clay is quite forgiving and experiments are easily erased.  

I liked the effect of the pressed leaves the children at the after school club did that I was inspired to have a play myself and make some moulds of my favourite trees. The addition of a ribbon into the still wet plaster meat that these were much easier to hang up.

Ash Leaves

 The children involved in the carving project wanted to paint their creations. By washing the paint afterwards we were able to get a better effect, the paint washes off the raised parts and highlights the low points in a really effective way.

Or by gently wiping the clay away from the high points of moulded parts you can get a similar effect. I like both finished results in different ways. 

You can see more of the children's finished carvings here.

A change to play- based learning. A parent's perspective.

I have been working closely with a school as they went through some massive changes. When I first worked with them in March last year the Foundation stage; nursery and reception class were two separate entities. Hilary who leads the unit, has been inspired by a trip to Reggio Emilia in Italy and the approach they have for their Early Years learning and teaching. 

She made some phenomenal changes to their learning environment; merging the space to create a large free flow area, inside and out which hosts 120 children in a rich creative play-based learning environment. 

My role has been to take on provocations, projects that has emerged from the children's interests and ideas and also taking small groups to a local woodland. The group I take to the woods those children who have been identified as needing a 'boost' for one reason or another. Children who need additional support, children who might have less confidence or resilience or children who it was recognised would really thrive in the woodland environment. 

The provocations I have been involved in include a building project, a fire project and at the moment we are bringing a carving project to a close and waiting for a visit from Kim, Rob and billy big saw to realise our carving plans on a big scale.

The transition for the setting hasn't always been an easy one. Staff have found it challenging and some parents were really skeptical. But they have persevered and are just completeing their first year with their new approach. 

One of the mums recently wrote a letter, which she and the staff are happy to share. It is so insightful, observant and encouraging. I really applaud the efforts that the school have made in their transition and it is wonderful to see them recognised by the people who matter most in a child's life. 

"My thoughts about the changes in Foundation Stage, from someone who had reservations, and is now really happy!  

I hope this is helpful to any school or to parents who are thinking about making the same change as that in Carr Manor Primary Schools' Foundation Stage and may have concerns.  I am a parent with 2 children at the school.  My eldest child started in reception 3 years ago. We were very happy with the standard of care and education in reception, the environment was excellent and seemed to deliver everything we had expected for our child starting school. 

Two years later our daughter started in reception.  This was the first year the school introduced the new foundation system.  I had a number of reservations.  I had been very pleased with the reception class that our eldest child had been part of, what could be described as a more traditional educational model.  Class room, carpet, reading books, register, spellings, structured learning, set play times.I didn't see the need to change what appeared to be a good reception class.

 I was concerned about mixing nursery school children with reception aged children and particularly the effect this might have on teaching the children in reception.  I was worried that my child would lose out, and may be disadvantaged because of being in the same group as younger children. I was also concerned about what might appear to be an extension of nursery, rather than the start of school.  How would she know this was school if it felt like a continuation of nursery?  How would she be prepared for key stage one? I was worried about the size of the foundation stage, it seemed like a huge number of children to arrive on site, and be collected at any one time, 120 children is a lot in one, albeit large, space. I was also a little concerned about the "learning through play" ethos.  My head thought it would probably be a good thing, having read research to that effect.  My heart felt that being given something different was unsettling. Even though I felt uncomfortable about the changes, I did trust the the staff at Carr Manor and believed that they would only make the changes if it was in the children's best interest, however, I did need to be convinced. 

One year on I am convinced.  Any worries or concerns that I had have gone away.  I am so happy with this year, more than I could have possibly imagined. 

Taking my concerns in turn, mixing nursery age children and reception children together and the effect this may have on development.  Rather than this being detrimental to our child, it has been the opposite.  She has thrived and has relished the role as one of the "older" children, happily taking on responsibility that would not have been available to her in the other system.  She has shown real maturity, taking care of the younger children and stepping up in the role.  This is particularly noticeable as our daughter is the youngest in our family and is rarely "the older one" at home.  I see this as a huge advantage, one that she would not have experienced this year had it not have been for the school.  

Being in a mixed age group has not had any detrimental effect on her learning.  She has thrived in a less pressured environment.  The way this new system supports children to learn at their own pace and still be stretched is refreshing.  By not putting children under any pressure helps develop their confidence, and helps then to feel able to take risks, and succeed.  For example, she has absolutely grasped the concept of phonics, is eager to read books and does this without thinking by noticing words around her, part of her everyday life.

Our daughter is very clear that she is in reception and other children are in nursery.  She is somehow able to maintain this reception identity and therefore it doesn't feel like a continuation of nursery.   Looking on, I find it difficult to make the distinction.  I have no concerns about that, but I find it interesting that the children do make a clear distinction between the reception and nursery, which I think will be important as they move into year 1.

Even though there are a lot of children arriving altogether, there have been different entrances.  Each group, very clearly has a particular area, pegs, a stage and of course staff giving each group a particular identity.  It doesn't feel like a huge group, even though it is.  There is a lot of interaction between the groups giving a real sense of togetherness.  I know lots of names of children in other groups, all identified by the colour of group they belong to, amazing.

There has been so much creativity on display through the learning.  The children have been given the opportunity to choose topics that interest them.  The highlight for our group was the dancing project.  Born out of the groups interest in the Japanese Tsunami and their wish to help the relief effort.  The group decided to put on a dancing show.  It was unbelievable, inspirational and totally amazing.  Choreographed by the children, we were amazed by their efforts and their enthusiasm.  What an opportunity and what an experience for them all, building a huge amount of confidence and enabling the children to learn in a different way, developing the skills they will need to draw on as they move through the school and develop educationally.

I understand that every child is different and develop at different rates.  I am convinced that our eldest boy would have thrived in this environment.  With hindsight he struggled with the more structured approach.  Our daughter would have probably coped well in that environment, but I know she absolutely has thrived in this new system and I would have no hesitation in recommending the approach, it is brilliant.  Superbly executed by the staff at Carr Manor, who are amazing."

Child initiated learning- making sparks!

Last night a group of newly qualified reception teachers came to the Foundation Stage Unit where I am doing some work with three to five year-olds. The lead teacher was talking about the ethos of the setting where I work and how the planning is built around the children and following their interests. The effort and energy is put into recording, reflecting and responding rather than planning and preparation and the environment is set up to enable the children to access resources and ideas on whatever level they are at.

I have been doing Forest School sessions with children from the setting and doing occasional work in the school grounds for almost a year now, certainly long enough for the children to have got the measure of me. One child, who had been to the woods and cooked on open fires with me last May decided that he wanted to make a fire. So he recruited me to the role of expert and we started to collect sticks. Other children joined with the collecting and we decided where to build our fire. I explained that I had nothing to light a fire with, but we didn't let that hold us back.....

The sticks turning green when we rubbed them together gave us a chance to talk about why some wood is good for burning and what it means to have wood that is seasoned or dry. We were also able to work out what it would feel like, and sound like, by snapping lots of sticks to listen to the noise that dry wood makes. We talked about how dangerous fire could be and how it is important to always have an adult with you when there is a fire. In short we were able to prepare for some fire lighting and cooking next week. "Can we cook soup!" "mm-mm yes, lovely soup" "I like soup". All of this happened pretty spontaneously and engaged and inspired lots of children, the learning fell naturally out of our actions and interactions.

I am really interested about their knowledge of rubbing sticks together to make fire and want to show them my fire bow-drill, a direction that I might not have taken without following them and their interests. The lead teacher and I are filled with glee, when we originally discussed my role within the setting we had wild ideas about building an earth oven and all sorts of fire related projects. The really exciting thing is the children have started us on that path.

The language of leaping

Even in that frantic run up to Christmas the Foundation stage children (aged three to five) who had been working on the treehouse were reflective of their experiences. The tree house building which has been recorded here and here ground to a halt when we found we had a structure that we could leap off.

The staff in the setting and I were really fascinated by the pictures of them jumping. They seemed to look so calm and so dramatic all at once. So I made some time to sit with the children looking at the pictures and reflecting on their experiences and exploring the language of leaping.

 

I really like the way their reflections involve some real emotional literacy, Frank thinking about how his future self would feel looking at a picture of himself now, Oscar talking about how he managed his emotional state at the time, Kaleb noticing his own and the emotions of others. The comments on the pictures also reflect how much fantasy and dramatic play was going on, the acting out of characters and superhero personae and the sheer volume of imaginative language around flight and flying. 

A tree house the colour of sunset

After the popularity of the work bench in the Atelier I was reflecting on how we could keep developing our skills with the tools and make a collaborative project. I also wanted to take the work bench outside. 

Over the next few sessions we have some different tools, like drills and different size nails and pieces of wood.  We also have different things to hammer into, like corks and conkers.

We talk about what we are making and I ask what we could make outdoors if we had big pieces of wood. Maraaya says “a cat” Jonah says “an aeroplane” Frank says “a tree house”

I can see a tree house being a project that would interest lots of the children and would offer play value during and after the project.

I ask what we would need to build a tree house. “Lots of wood” says William.

It just so happened that I spotted a pallet on the top of a skip not far from the school. I was raised in the noble art of skip diving from a very early age. As children we used to go out with a shopping trolley collecting wood to build chicken houses for our 'poultry farm'.

The pallet caused lots of excitement and we dragged it into the wild area at the top of the play area.    

“It is like a ladder” says Jacob. With the pallet resting on the tree they can climb up it to get to the tree. “It isn't a tree house though” says Frank.

“Well lets make it into one then.....” 

We hammer nails into the pallet,

We saw it......

We drill holes into it

And we prise open the cracks with a screwdriver

Dylan finds that he can attach elastic bands around the nails that he is hammering in. William points out that Dylan is hammering the nails in patterns. He passes the nails to Dylan. 

The next day I bring a second pallet and we start with the tools on that one too. Hammering it, sawing it, drilling it and prising the cracks open with the screwdrivers.We have worked really hard, but in terms of output we now have two pallets with small cuts, nail patterns drilled holes and some loose planks. The pallets work really well as workbenches, they are really stable, children can work all the way around and on top of them without needing help with clamps or stabilising their wood.

We talk a lot about what the treehouse will look like. “It should be painted with rainbows and teddy bears” says Frank. He runs off and comes back with red paint. Georgia fetches yellow paint. There is a lot of paint. 

Some of it covers them, their waterproofs and three or four people have arms that are entirely painted red. Our pallets are looking beautiful.
Oscar looks up into the tree, concerned about how safe it will be. "It will be very wobbly" he says.
"Then we could tie it in to the tree" says Frank,
"We only have the very thin string in the making area" Oscar points out
"We could make it more like a Wendy house" says Frank.

I am at this point a little relieved. I had been following their suggestions right up to this point, they brought the ladders over to check all the trees and declared them safe. But the size of the trees wouldn't really support a platform at a low level and building it higher up the tree would mean a higher level of supervision than the setting could manage on a long term basis. Which means that whatever we made would have to be very temporary. Frank is going to do some drawings to show us how it will look, and I have too. Whichever way our construction takes us next week it is shaping up to be an excellent tree house (on the ground).

Oscar looks closely at the painted pallets. “They are the colour of sunsets”

If I had a hammer....

So far this week we have only had to down tools to deal with an injury twice. Once for a very small cut that needed a plaster and once for a finger, that got hit with a hammer slightly harder than all the other times we hit our fingers and thumbs with a hammer.Not a bad record from almost two full days of hammering and sawing by a group of children aged between three and five.

This week I have started a project working in an atelier, or studio, based in a Foundation stage of a large school. The Foundation stage is inspired by Reggio Emilia and the Atelier is kitted out with plenty of creative resources. I didn’t quite know how this was going to start this week. I knew the staff and some of the children from a Forest School project in the spring but I noticed how wary many of the children were of a stranger in their nursery and reception.

Leaf rubbing isn't novel, but was still amazing

 enough for a child who had never 

seen it done before to say “Woah! That’s sick!”

 I felt that it would be hard to work from a child led point of view until I got to know the children and they got to know me and that lots of exciting projects wouldn't develop until this relationship developed. The first morning I caught up with a few old friends and we drew and made leaf rubbings as we chatted about our memories of going to the woods. In  particular the children remembered cooking popcorn over a fire during the last session. It was exciting to hear the memories of a boy who previously chose not to speak in nursery and gradually, as he gained confidence and enthusiasm during the Forest School project chose to talk to us in the woods and then in back in the setting. Now, he chatted away about the things he remembered and introduced me to his friends.

We made lots of full size self portraits drawing round their bodies, and the art works spread out all over the floor and round the corner. It was a great way to spend a little time one to one with lots of the children.

The second morning I put a tray of pebbles on the table along with some pictures of stacks of pebbles. I am keen to do some more animation so I set up the camera with a remote shutter to record the pebbles as the children moved them around.  It was as this was coming to a natural end that someone took notice of the work bench that is in the atelier and that, is when the sawing and hammering started.

There is room round the bench for six people to work at any one time. For all the rest of the day these places were constantly occupied.  It was mostly the older children and the more confident ones who chose to come and work with the saws and hammers, some coming back a number of times throughout the day. We had to develop a system for queuing, with a list for who was next in line for a space round the table. So for most of the day we were busily engaged. The children’s persistence and patience was incredible. Even during the course of a day I saw their hand eye co-ordination improve.  

On the next day I started out working with a group, helping them extend a provocation about skeletons that they started some weeks ago. We brought the skeletons into the atelier and did some animations with the bones. The children loved passing the remote shutter release button around to take the photos without  moving the camera which was mounted on a tripoid. Again as this was ending a child came over and said “Lily, I would really like to finish my sawing.  Please can you get me a saw.”

Quickly all the work bench spaces fill, with a queue of 6 or more either watching or drawing as they waited for their turn. The quieter, shyer children used the opportunity to watch before they took their turn. One of the smallest nursery children came and watched, even though she wasn’t really able to express clearly with language what she wanted, she wanted to have a turn. She waited for such a long time but watched the others as they worked. Really patiently she sawed at her piece of wood, when she had two pieces of wood the look of satisfaction on her face was incredible. She pointed to the hammer and then to her wood and started hammering away.  When her grandparents came to pick her up she shows them what she has made.

By the end of the day some children are really tired with the effort and concentration they have put in. But for the amount of constant use of the tools for nearly two days we only have one cut and that one bashed finger. Children know the risks and are really careful for most of the time. The tools were always put away when they weren’t being used and I had to manage the numbers around the table as the observers got drawn into watching too closely.

For every generation, except the last few, mastery of tools and the ability to make things with our hands has been a key to our survival as a species. In another blog post I would like to explore the theory of recapitulation in relation to tool use and fires but for now what I am thinking about is; with the popularity of the work bench in the last couple of days, we will do anything in this project other than hammering and sawing? How else can we use our tools? What could we build? I used to manage a self build adventure playground, will we tackle larger scale structures like those we built there? or sculptures with nails in or.....